Doctor's death raises questions about walking safari tours

The trampling death of former UC San Diego Dean Thomas McAfee has raised questions about the safety of walking safari tours conducted by private wildlife preserves that ring many East African national parks.

Tanzanian officials say McAfee was killed by a herd of elephants on Saturday, Aug. 31, while on a walking tour near Tarangire National Park although details on the incident have not been released to the public.

Stephen Qolli, a warden at the 1,096-square-mile park, said that the accident occurred just outside the nature preserve’s western boundary at Tarangire River Camp.

Situated just two miles from the park’s front gate, the camp is one of about a dozen privately owned reserves that offer a full set of tourist amenities, from lodging to tours.

On its website, Tarangire River Camp mentions its location, near the national park but technically outside its borders, as a main selling point because “various activities not permitted within any of Tanzania’s northern national parks are possible including guided walking safaris.”

Qolli said walking tours are seldom allowed inside the park because they are seen as too dangerous.

“Inside, the regulations are strict,” he said. “When animals are in the vicinity, you are not allowed to get out of your car.”

The warden said one possible danger of walking tours is suddenly coming upon elephants at close range. Bushes in the area, he said, can be large enough to obscure elephants until walkers are very close.

“If you suddenly meet an elephant, it tries to defend itself,” he said. “If you bump into an elephant, it will charge. If they are not very close to you, they normally don’t charge. It all depends on how close they are to you. You cannot predict, sometimes, their behavior.”

The camp, on a 96-square-mile private reserve that includes a branch of the Tarangire River, does not list the safety precautions it takes in conducting walking tours. Officials with Mbali Mbali Lodges and Camps, which operates the facility and several others like it, did not respond to telephone and email requests for information.

It is also not clear what precautions were in place during McAfee’s walking tour, which was detailed in The Citizen, an English language newspaper based in Dar es Salaam.

That account, which relies on a police report written in Swahili, states that McAfee and two companions encountered a herd of about 50 elephants who charged suddenly, causing the doctor to trip and fall while running away from the charging pachyderms.

The incident has garnered interest in the safari tour industry, with many wondering whether McAfee was accompanied by armed guides whose job it would have been to keep tourists out of harm’s way.

Jim Heck, owner of Chicago-based Explorers World Travel company, said he has been advising his clients not to take walking tours in the Tarangire area for years.

“I’ve been telling them for the last five years that it’s just not safe,” he said.

With 40 years of experience in Africa and 15 years specializing in East Africa, Heck said he has observed significant changes in the park’s elephant population that make him skittish about allowing his clients to walk.

He said population growth rates in the elephant herd as well as increased human activity in the area attributable to farming, tourism and poaching, have made elephants behave differently than in the past.

“You put those things together and you have a situation where the animals are just stressed to the limit,” he said.

Heck posted his views on his personal blog under the heading “Don’t walk on Safari,” using McAfee’s death to illustrate his point. That post got a quick disagreement from some.

One poster identified as “Teena” noted that many guided walking tours go off without incident: “Walking on safari is an amazing experience and thousands of folk every year do it without incident. Just imagine a world where no risks, however small, were ever taken.”

Heck said he understands that trampling deaths are uncommon, but he added that the African tour industry is not paying attention to the signs being seen among East African herds.

“The people who believe very much in walking tours believe that they have people who are well trained, who are good shots, who know how not to get into a situation that is bad to begin with. I think they’ve been around too long and they’re not seeing the obvious,” Heck said.

By all accounts, calling the facility where McAfee stayed a “camp” is a bit like calling an elephant “pretty big.”

On its website, the camp bills itself as an authentic safari experience with fitted canvas tents on raised wooden decks under thatched roofs. The tents are far from primitive with en-suite bathrooms, showers and flush toilets. There is running water throughout the day and hot water for showers in the evenings.

Heck said a tour he conducted stayed there about a year ago. He said Tarangire River was rebuilt about three years ago after being abandoned.

He added that it would cost about $800 per day to stay at the camp, including the cost of renting a Land Rover for tours of the area, park admittance fees, and markups charged by travel companies. That price, he said, is not considered high end.

“I would call it a decent upper middle market property. It is certainly possible to spend twice that amount at other properties in the area,” he said.

It was not clear Friday afternoon whether McAfee’s body had been returned to the United States. A spokesman with the U.S. State Department confirmed that the government is working with his family but, citing privacy concerns, declined to provide more information.